Taking a dog out for a walk is a common occurrence, but have you ever heard of someone walking their rats? No? Fret not, it’s still 2020–the year of weird events! In one such bizarre incident, a video has emerged of a Chinese man walking with two rats on a street as though they were his pets.
As per Daily Mail, the video clip shows the man walking the rodents with long strings attached to their mouths as leashes at a market in south China’s Guangdong province. The clip was shared by an onlooker on the Chinese TikTok-esque Douyin, without explaining what the man was doing. Footage showed one of the rats curiously sniffing around while the other one seemed lifeless as it was dragged along the road without any movement.
He appeared to have their mouths tied to by a small metal hooks which were then linked to the strings. The man is believed to be a salesman who used the animals to promote his rat traps after similar scenes had previously been spotted in China.
Chinese sellers have used similar methods to promote their rat traps. When a rat bites the food on the silver hook, the trap would expand and grab the rodent’s mouth.
It is also believed that the act is meant to shame the rodents as a punishment for stealing food.
Nevertheless, the act has amused social media users , many of whom commented that they have never seen such a thing before,